iPhone has a built-in way to hide photos from your main library. It’s quick and free, and for many people it’s enough. Here’s how to use it, and where it stops protecting you.
Hide a photo or video
- Open Photos and tap the photo you want to hide. To hide several, tap Select first and pick them.
- Tap the ••• button (More).
- Tap Hide, then confirm.
The photo disappears from your library, from Memories and from widgets, and moves to the Hidden album.
Find and lock the Hidden album
Open Photos and scroll down to Utilities. Hidden is there, and it opens only with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
To make sure it’s locked: Settings › Apps › Photos › Use Face ID (on older iOS: Settings › Photos). You can also turn off Show Hidden Album so it doesn’t appear in Photos at all.
To unhide a photo, open it in the Hidden album, tap •••, then Unhide.
What the Hidden album doesn’t protect
The Hidden album keeps photos out of casual view. It isn’t a vault:
- Your passcode opens it. Anyone who knows or watches you type your iPhone passcode can see everything in it.
- It’s still in Photos. Hidden photos sync with iCloud Photos to your other devices.
- Location stays in the photo. Hidden photos still carry location and other hidden details. Share one and that information goes with it.
- No way out under pressure. If someone makes you unlock your phone, there’s nothing between them and the album.
When to use a photo vault instead
If you need photos to be separate from your iPhone passcode, stripped of location, or protected when someone forces you to open them, a dedicated vault app does that. The Hidden album vs photo vault comparison walks through the differences.
Ghost keeps photos behind their own PIN, encrypted on your iPhone, removes location and camera details when you import them, and has a Panic PIN that opens an empty vault instead of the real one.